"Thinking about the city my father loved eased the huge ache that his death had caused. And as I read and imagined and began to understand, senses from my childhood played before me like long-forgotten photographs, and I found myself in the distant land of my father." (Prologue, pg. 5)

"'Shanghai isn't going to stay peaceful. That may mean a lot of trouble for us, or it may just mean inconvenience, but either way, we're about to become onlookers of a war.'" (Shanghai, pg. 32)

"My father looked toward the hallway. 'Your mother's afraid,' he said, and he paused and looked at me carefully. 'She wants to go home. To her home.'" (Battle, pg. 66)